Takeout from Rasa W1, London

I'm constantly on a quest for good Indian food, and have yet to find anywhere I even remotely like in San Francisco.  I've heard many times that London has amazing Indian cuisine, yet, on all my visits, I hadn't been all that impressed, even when dining at Michelin starred Indian restaurant Beneres (review here), even when visiting Cafe Spice Nameste, the favorite spot of my friends who live there (review), even visiting Dishoom the ridiculous crowd favorite of everyone I asked (review!)

On my last visit however, I decided to take things an entirely different direction.  Not towards the expensive Michelin star Indian restaurants.  Not towards the heavily hyped ones.  Just to one that a friend recommended, a total neighborhood place, Rasa.

Rasa is actually a mini chain, with a couple locations in London, all with slightly different concepts. We had plans to go for lunch on Sunday to Rasa W1, in Mayfair.  I was really looking forward to the meal, as the menu sounded fabulous, and reviews were good, even though not as extensive as places like Dishoom.

And then ... my companion got sick and we had to cancel our lunch plans.  I still wanted to try a few items though, particularly the ones I heard so many good things about, so I stopped by to grab takeout of just a few things to bring back to the hotel.

I thought it would be a quick, easy stop.  It was not.

The place is tiny, and was full.  It seemed to be entirely served and run by two men, who were taking orders, bringing out food, finishing dishes, handling payment, and even making some of the food.  It seemed that nearly every table (there were only like 6-7 tables) needed something from the staff, and were highly annoyed at how long they were waiting.  "We'd just like to order", I heard one table say, repeatedly.  "I'm sorry, I just really need a spoon", said a woman who had gotten out of her seat and come up to the front of the restaurant.  "Water, please, just a glass of water", another said.  At the same time, an appam being made by the staff started smoking and filling the entire room with smoke.  Um, yeah.

I waited patiently for at least 12 minutes before my order was taken.  The staff acknowledged me, but it was clear they were underwater, and just couldn't do more.  Finally they took my order, and told me it would be a while.  When my hot food arrived, they realized they hadn't prepared any of the cold dishes (items that are put together by the front of house, these two poor guys), nor had they wrong up my bill, etc.  It took another 10 minutes, while my hot food got cold, before my bag was handed over.

I escaped, rather annoyed, and assumed it was all a lost cause.

It wasn't.  The food really was good, and I'd like to return to dine-in and have a full meal sometime, but, uh, I'm a little scared by what I saw on this visit ...

Little Sweets.

 While I sat there waiting, I watched person after person come take handfuls of the little snacks near the front door.  Out of boredom, I tried them too.

The one on the far left was crunchy and very sweet.  I couldn't tell if there was more to it than sugar or not, but it tasted a lot like the coating for Jordan almonds.  I almost liked it.

Next was the classic colorful candy coated fennel seed, mukhwas, a nice palette cleanser.

Candied nuts came next, sweet, crunchy, nice enough.

I didn't try the item on the far right, I think it was just rock sugar?

Nice little treats to leave the establishment with a lovely taste in your mouth.

Pickles & Chutneys.  £3.50.

"The spicy fresh punctuation of the best Indian food and as important to a South Indian as the food itself. All of our pickles and chutneys are home made."

People rave about the pickles and chutneys at Rasa, and since I wasn't getting a full meal full of curry sauces, I figured these would be good to dunk my other items into.

The menu listed 6 items: Coriander and coconut chutney, garlic, mango, lemon, and mixed vegetable pickles. I received 5 items, and, I can't really figure out what they all were.  The top row is a total mystery to me.

The first one, top left, really seemed like a spicy tamarind chutney or something, but, if I had to make a guess from the list, how about lemon pickle?  I really have no idea.  It was sour, and really, really spicy, and I didn't really care for the taste.

The next one, I would have guessed was ginger pickle.  With carrots?  Lots of seasoning, lots of flavor, crunchy texture.  I guess it must have been garlic, but it seriously tasted like ginger.  I think I liked this one.  Mostly zucchini?

The bottom row made more sense.  From left:

• Mixed Vegetable Pickle: This I liked, crunchy and fresh.  Mostly zucchini?
• Coconut Chutney: I wanted to love this since I like coconut, and it was creamy, but, I wasn't into it, I'm not sure why.  I think because it was more like gritty coconut and less like coconut milk as I wanted.  Slightly spicy.
• Coriander Chutney: Another one I wanted to love, since I thought it would be refreshing and light, but, it turned out to just be kinda green and mushy.  Not spicy.

I was glad to try these, but, none of them wowed me, and I sorta missed standard mango, mint, and tamarind chutneys.  They did pack them up nicely, clearly, takeout is something they do regularly.

Pre-Meal Snacks. €4.00.

"These light and crispy treats are popular in Keralan teashops for “tiffin” (afternoon tea) and to munch while waiting at the station for the Trivandrum main train. They are best accompanied by our unique selection of home-made chutneys and pickles. A snack tray consisting of: Anchappam, Pappadavadai, Pappadoms, Banana Chips, Murukku."

Ok, so this I got because I love snack foods, and it sounded like a big pile of crunchy random Indian snacks, most of which I'd never had.  I figured we could munch on these in the hotel room later.  It is a bit hard to see in the photo, but my little sack contained 5 different items.

Achappam

"A flower shaped snack made of rice flour and coconut, black sesame seeds and cumin seeds. This snack began life in the Christian homes of Travancore and is now eaten all over Southern India."

This one I really liked, it is the crazy flour shaped thing in front.  It was crispy, and flavorful, and most importantly, not made of lentils!  I'd gladly munch on these anytime.  A bit oily, but in a good way, like, french fries.  It let you know it wasn't necessarily the healthiest snack though.

Sadly, my bag had only one of these.

Pappadavadai

"Pappadoms dipped in a light batter of rice flour, cumin and sesame seeds and fried to give them extra "crunch and crackle" - these are Pappadoms with a difference."

These were really fun, you can see one right above the Achappam.  They tasted mildly like pappadoms, so, a bit of lentil, but they were super crunchy, and had a ton more flavor from the cumin.  I liked these, the level of crispness was awesome, but the bit of lentil was a put-off.

My bag had about 4 of these.

Pappadoms

"Plain crispy snack made of black gram lentils and rice."

Standard pappadoms, I don't like lentil, and these tasted like lentil.  They were light and airy though.  My companion liked them well enough.

These were a lot of these.

Banana Chips

"Crispy banana chips."

Standard banana chips.  A bit different to munch on alongside my indian food, but, still just banana chips.

The bag had probably 8 of these.

Murukku

"Crunchy sticks made from roasted rice flour, black sesame seeds and cumin seeds."

These were the crazy notched little sticks you can see.  They were very seasoned, and you'd think would taste like the achappam, but, they were more flavorful, and not in a way I liked.  Fascinating form factor, but I didn't like these.

The bag had a bunch of these.

Overall, a fun mix, and I'm glad I tried it.

Malabar Paratha £2.50.

"A Kerala speciality - wheat dough layered and coiled into a coir mat shape then cooked on the griddle. A must with our curries."

Rasa is a South Indian restaurant, so most tables were ordering dosa, but the menu does also have a few breads.  Not naan of course.  I was planing to just order the snacks and desserts, but, in my time waiting, I decided to throw on a paratha too.  Reviews all said it was the best paratha they had ever had, and I really do love paratha and rarely get it.

I can't quite fairly evaluate this of course, because mine was wrapped up in a bag, and left sitting there for quite some time while they figured out the rest of my order.

That said, I ripped off a piece as soon as I got out the door, and, well, yup, it was good.  Nice hearty wheat flavor, not too oily, dense and doughy in places, but crispy on the outside.  I used it to dunk in all the different chunteys and pickles, and I'm sure it would be fabulous with some curries, and even more fabulous when fresh obviously.

They also packaged it in a great way, an insulated little bag, metallic on the inside, paper on the outside.  Again, they did a nice job with the packaging for take away.

Madhuram

"Any auspicious feast in Kerala is not complete with out a “Madhuram”. It is said that the Madhuram (the sweet) will make the meal memorable for years."

And then, dessert, clearly I was not skipping that.  If I was dining in, I certainly would have tried the warm banana dosa with ice cream, but, alas, I was taking this away to eat later.  I still couldn't decide on just one though, so, I got two.

Pal Payasam. £3.50.

"An auspicious rice pudding from the famous Krishna temple in Kerala. Rice cooked in boiling milk with cashew nuts and raisins."

I love puddings.  I really like rice puddings, but, generally not Indian style, I prefer thicker set custards.  Still, I always try rice pudding when it is on a menu, so, I had to get it.

The rice pudding was actually warm, which I lamented a bit, since I thought it would be chilled, and I had no way to heat it up again later.  So I had to try it then.

It wasn't great.  Very thin, not much rice at all.  It was spiced with I think cardamom, which I don't really like.  The rice that was there was short grain and kinda mushy.  There were a few chunks of cashew.  I didn't find any of the promised raisins.

This packaging job was less successful.  The container was actually full, and it seeped out everywhere.  The lid for this was just cardboard.  Luckily, they had this inside a paper bag, inside a plastic bag, so, the mess didn't go far, but, a mess it did make.

Kesari. £3.50.

"A Brahmin recipe of semolina, mango, cashew nuts, and raisins, they are more like Halwas but much lighter and with more flavour."

So I'm glad I picked a second dessert too, and this one I actually thought was going to be the random wildcard.  It too was served warm.

I've never had kesari, nor seen it before, so, this was entirely a first to me.  I had read a review where someone described it was "mango bread pudding", which sounded pretty promising to me.  I love bread puddings.

I wouldn't call this bread pudding.  But it was really fascinating, and quite good.

The base was a dense semolina pudding, almost like a polenta I guess, except that it was not remotely savory, and was sweet from the mango and other sugars, and also spiced with indian spices.  Like the rice pudding, it had some chunks of cashew nut, and I didn't find any raisins in here either.  Perhaps they were out of raisins that day?

Anyway, this was sweet, but not obnoxiously so like many indian desserts.  It was dense, sorta like cornbread made with finely milled cornmeal, but, uh, sweet.  And mango-y.

I really enjoyed it, and the price was remarkable for the large, 4 chunk portion, that I did not share with anyone (although I saved half to eat later with some milky chai, which was absolutely perfect!)